Season the pork loin with salt and pepper. Heat the oil in a pan where the pork will fit, stretched out. When the oil is rippling sear the loin on each side, about a minute, each. Turn off the heat and turn on the oven to 450'F/220'C.

Remove the loin to a board or large plate. Arrange a row of sage leaves on its top side and flip carefully. Arrange more sage leaves on the other side. Now wrap the bacon slices around the loin, trapping the sage leaves between bacon and meat. It will take some coaxing as the leaves on the bottom tend to drop off until trapped. If you have leftover leaves, press them on top of the bacon, on the outside.

Once wrapped, return the loin to the pan, pour the balsamic vinegar over it, and pop it into the hot oven for about 12 minutes, or until the bacon looks cooked and the pork is slightly resistant to a firm finger-poke. Remove and allow the loin to rest for at least five minutes.

Put the hot pan on the stovetop again over high heat, and add the wine to deglaze the sticky pan juices, stirring briskly. Lower the heat and add the cream, stirring well.

Reasons to lick a page

...Versluis gazed at the brilliance of the tablecloth in the lamplight - with the bread board and the water jug, the salt and pepper, the oil and vinegar all laid out precisely upon it. The table spoke of neatness, sobriety and constant vigilance against indulgence and prodigality...

Karel Schoeman, Another Country.

Nancy Cardozo shares a house with her friend Aileen Ward in New Milford, Conn.; both are writers in their 90s. “We eat everything we like,” Ms. Cardozo said. “Any kinds of eggs, blini, any good red or beluga caviar with crème fraîche, cheesecake, chocolate soufflé with whipped cream, crème brûlée, filet mignon, pasta with pesto. Aileen drinks Lillet, and I’m vodka and tonic. We drink as much as we can.”

Yes, there are meals that are eaten at the edge of the lips and the edge of the fork, with the little finger in the air, the spine erect, and with a somewhat dazed air. But that is not me.

Roger Verge, Entertaining in the French Style

...the way in which mealtimes are passed is most important to what happiness we find in life.

Brillat Savarin, The Physiology of Taste

...coffee, like tea for the Irish lady, should be strong enough to trot a mouse upon.

MFK Fisher, Coffee, Atlantic Monthly, 1945

It was a hot day but cool in the old building and the waiter asked, "Do you want gazpacho?" He was an old man and he filled their glasses again."Do you think the senorita would like it?""Try her," the waiter said gravely as though he were speaking of a mare.It came in a large bowl with ice floating with the slices of crisp cucumber, tomato, garlic, bread, green and red peppers, and the coarsely peppered liquid tasted lightly of oil and vinegar."It's a salad soup, " Catherine said. "It's delicious.""Es gazpacho," the waiter said.

Ernest Hemingway, The Garden of Eden.

On this morning there was brioche and red raspberry preserve and the eggs were boiled and there was a pat of butter that melted as they stirred them and salted them lightly and ground pepper over them in the cups. They were big eggs and fresh and the girl's were not cooked quite as long as the young man's. He remembered this easily and he was happy with his which he diced up with the spoon and ate only with the flow of butter to moisten them and the fresh early morning texture and the bite of the coarsely ground pepper grains and the hot coffee and the chickory-fragrant bowl of cafe au lait.